Your Mac Can Type Faster Than You

Nearly everyone I know has a teacher somewhere in their history who was not liked back then but later much appreciated. High on my list was my typing teacher. Yes, most of her students seemed to dislike her because she was tough and disciplined. She taught typing.

My reward for enduring her toughness for two semesters was simple. I learned to type well. I can hit 70 words per minute with accuracy, especially on my favorite keyboards– Mac connected, of course. That means that with the right application I can actually type faster than I can type.

Parallel Typing

Not everyone I know was blessed with a tough typing teacher in high school. Some Mac folk still hunt and peck, but regardless of your typing ability or speed, here’s a simple way to type faster than you can actually type on your Mac. The Mac helps to speed up your typing.

The app is called aText, one of a number of Mac applications which help you type faster and with more accuracy by replacing abbreviations with frequently used words or phrases– and you customize each abbreviation to your needs.

aText comes with a few abbreviations already, and you can use those as templates to create your own. If you have phrases, words, addresses, or boiler plate text that you’re required to type over and over, all those can be stored in aText. Each one gets an abbreviation (which you decide) when automatically type out whatever you saved.

There’s much more going on with aText than meets the eye. For example, aText will automatically capitalize new sentences (that helps you to type faster). It even corrects double capitals and keeps spaces correctly.

Preferences are nominal and self explanatory but give you options to fit your style and experience.

To get started, all you need to do is setup the text you want typed. Then, match it with appropriate abbreviations. There are built-in snippets to start, but also snippets for spelling errors, JavaScript and HTML coding, and more.

If you’re using multiple Macs, aText also syncs up abbreviations between Macs by using iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft’s OneDrive. By using iCloud or another cloud storage service you won’t have to retype all the phrases or abbreviations.

And, yes, if you’ve used one of the more expensive text accelerators like TextExpander, TypeIt4Me, and others, aText can import their abbreviations and text snippets.

These apps are good for writers, of course, or for anyone who has a need for retyping the same phrases, words, or boilerplate text over and over. aText is the least expensive of the bunch.

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About Natalia Nowak

My husband, Nathan, and I have used Macs for nearly 25 years. We're teachers at a private school in Chicago, IL. I'm also the school's resident Mac system administrator, PC troubleshooter, and a diehard Mac diva and iPhone hacker. Read more of my articles here.